Poolside is a two-sided marketplace that helps hourly workers stitch together multiple jobs to find the collective, consistent hours they need to make a living, while helping restaurants find and keep talent longer. Unlike traditional job platforms, Poolside allowed for two-sided matches, so that perfect matches wouldn't miss each other.
Poolside was a studio startup of Gordon Foods Service, designed and launched to address the labor shortage in restaurants by rethinking traditional approaches to hiring and ways to expand the overall job pool for restaurants.
- Lyfe Kitchen
- Blackwood BBQ
- Line cook, Chicago
- Server, Chicago
Over the years, finding and keeping hourly talent had become a major challenge for restaurants, who spend on average $120,000 a year on turnover costs.
The problem was that most restaurants were capping workers at part-time hours to minimize labor costs.
Yet talent told us they wanted more hours but with consistent schedules and pay that comes with jobs and not gigs.
We realized that If we could help just 10% of employees find the additional hours they wanted at other restaurants, the impact would be like adding 680,000 new people to the labor force.
-Independent Operator, Chicago
-Server, Chicago
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Poolside was co-designed with hundreds of hourly talent and restaurant managers to ensure that it helped workers find the hours they wanted and restaurants benefit from the trend of part-time job seekers.
The platform uses a proprietary algorithm to deliver two-sided matches based on a number of criteria including shift times, schedule, pay, and location.
This allows talent to take back ownership of their schedule and decide where, when, and how much they want to work, while restaurants can build a personalized, pre-screened pipeline of workers for every position and shift on their team.
Poolside was the outcome of an innovation project I managed at Doblin Deloitte to identify new business opportunities for , the largest US private food distributor.
My team built, piloted, and spun out the solution as a new venture and I went on to run the startup as CEO and Co-founder.
I hired and led a cross-functional team of 11 designers, engineers, marketers and salespeople. I oversaw our business and product strategy, our initial go-to-market efforts to launch the marketplace, and our concept design and product experience with my co-founder.
I closed $4M in seed funding and managed our board of directors.
For your first product version, find a balance between relatability and innovation. If it's too innovative, adoption will be difficult. Build on current user workflows and develop a behavior change roadmap to inform future product development to eventually get to your vision for innovation.
Avoid using product management techniques meant for mature companies. Instead, focus on accelerating your learnings in a way that is effective for your team. Avoid unnecessary processes that lead to over analysis and early optimization.
Build first with lightweight approaches like no-code to minimize costs before coding. Start scrappy and validate the business, product, and experience before you invest in writing a line of code.
Building a two-sided marketplace requires a strong understanding of growth loops and networks. Prioritize network effects and build virtuous flywheels and networks early on.
At early stage startups, to design the product is to design the company. The product is more than just your app, it's also your profit model and distribution and growth strategy. In some cases, these need to be built before you even think about designing your product.
Accelerate your startup's learning by immediately building a board of advisors and customers. This will help you quickly turn around advice and feedback while building a community around your company.
